Table 1.

List of countries and documents included in the analysis

Country	Nature document	Title of document	Year of Publication
Benin	Law	Code D’ Éthique et de Déontologie pour La Recherche en Santé en République du Bénin.	2010
Botswana	National guidelines	Standard Operating Procedures for Review Of Biomedical and Bio-Behavioural Research in Botswana	2011
Cameroon	SOP	Standard Operating Procedures for Research Ethics Committees (RECs) in Cameroon	2012
Ethiopia	National guidelines	National Research Ethics Review Guideline Fifth Edition	2014
Ghana	National Guidelines	Draft National Ethics Guidelines and Standard Operating procedures of Institutional Review Boards	In Development
Guinea	SOP	Procédure Opératoire Standardisée d’Examen d’un Projet de Recherche Biomédicale	2013
		Livre Troisieme de l’Éthique pour la Recherche en Santé	1997
Kenya	National guidelines	Guidelines for Ethical Conduct of Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects in Kenya	2004
Lesotho	SOP	Standard Operating Procedures for the National Health Research Ethics Committee	2013
Malawi	National Guidelines for genetic research	Policy Requirements, Procedures and Guidelines for the Conduct and Review of Human Genetic Research in Malawi	2012
Mauritius	Law	The Clinical Trials Bill	2010
	National guidelines	Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects	2003
Namibia	National guidelines	Guidelines on Clinical Trials in human subjects	2003
		Research Management Policy	2003
Nigeria	National guidelines	National Code of Health Research Ethics	2007
		Policy Statement on Storage of Human Samples in Biobanks and Biorepositories in Nigeria	2013
Rwanda	SOP	National ethics Committee Standard Operating Procedures	2009
Senegal	Law	Code d’Éthique pour la Recherche en Santé	2009
	Ministerial decree	Arrêté Portant Adoption des Bonnes Pratiques Cliniques (BPC ICR) pour la Conduite des Essais Cliniques.	2011
		Arrêté Ministeriel Portant Adoption du Guide du Chercheur et de la Brochures des Membres du CNERS pour l’Évaluation et le Suivi des Protocols de Recherche	2013
Sierra Leone	National guidelines	Guidelines for conducting clinical trials of medicines, food supplements, vaccines, and medical devices in sierra Leone.	Not Stated
		Guideline For Good Clinical Practice (GCP) In Sierra Leone
South Africa	Law	National Health Act	2003
	National guidelines	Department of Health Guidelines, 2nd edition	2015
		MRC guidelines on Ethics for medical research, reproductive biology and genetic research	2002
Sudan	National guidelines	National Guidelines for Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Human Subjects	2008
Tanzania	National Ethics Guidelines	Guidelines of Ethics for Health Research in Tanzania	2009
Togo	Ministerial Decree	Charte du Comité de Bioéthique pour la Recherche en Santé	2009
Uganda	National Guidelines	National Guidelines for Research Involving Humans as Research Participants	2014
Zambia	Law	The National Health Research Act	2013
Zimbabwe	National guidelines	Ethics Guidelines for Health Research Involving Human Participants in Zimbabwe	2011

SOP Standard Operating Procedure